Agricultural policies exacerbate honeybee pollination service supply-demand mismatches across Europe

Breeze, T. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8929-8354, Vaissière, B. E., Bommarco, R., Petanidou, T., Seraphides, N., Kozák, L., Scheper, J., Biesmeijer, J. C., Kleijn, D., Gyldenkærne, S., Moretti, M., Holzschuh, A., Steffan-Dewenter, I., Stout, J. C., Pärtel, M., Zobel, M. and Potts, S. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X (2014) Agricultural policies exacerbate honeybee pollination service supply-demand mismatches across Europe. PLoS ONE, 9 (1). e82996. ISSN 1932-6203 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0082996

Abstract/Summary

Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from 41 European countries, this study demonstrates that the recommended number of honeybees required to provide crop pollination across Europe has risen 4.9 times as fast as honeybee stocks between 2005 and 2010. Consequently, honeybee stocks were insufficient to supply >90% of demands in 22 countries studied. These findings raise concerns about the capacity of many countries to cope with major losses of wild pollinators and highlight numerous critical gaps in current understanding of pollination service supplies and demands, pointing to a pressing need for further research into this issue.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/35666
Identification Number/DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0082996
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Sustainable Land Management > Centre for Agri-environmental Research (CAER)
Uncontrolled Keywords	Agriculture; Ecosystems; Europe; Habitats; Honey bees; Insects; Pollination; rapeseed
Publisher	Public Library of Science
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